Celebrating its 8th year, the Turkish-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry was proud to present their annual UK-Turkey Business Forum held on Friday, 29 September 2017 at the Hilton Bosphorus Istanbul, Turkey. The Forum is the eldest event, where business opportunities and methods have been discussed in the Turkey-UK country-pair context and has been inspiring and educating Turkish-British business world since 2009. This year’s Forum continued with the tradition of bringing more than 100 high level executives and business leaders together while inspiring and connecting the vibrant business community.

“We have a fantastic range of speakers, panels and discussions coming up over the next six hours, all high-level experts in how to maximise trade and create favourable conditions,” said Emma Edhem, Chairman of TBCCI. “Each year this talented community assembles for a day of learning and sharing. And this year it comes at a uniquely important and positive time. We’re familiar with the geopolitical challenges faced both across the world and, in Turkey and the UK in particular. They are relevant to our bilateral relationship but they do not define it. Looking at evidence, we see that UNCTAD 2017 World Investment Report states Turkey has been the most active direct investment country in 2016 and concluded more International Investment Agreements than any other country. Turkish Economy grew by more than 5% and from January-July Turkish exports grew by 10.6%. These are superb numbers. But just as important as those numbers is the will. That’s what I see when I look around this conference today. Because I know that time is right to enter a new age of bilateral trade between our two great trading nations.”

TBCCI’s Business Forum is an expert information exchange and business networking occasion designed around honourable keynote speakers and high-level expert panels. This year, three keynote speakers representing the UK-Turkey bilateral economic and diplomatic relations were featured in the first part of the sessions.

The first keynote featured H.E. Turkish Ambassador in London Abdurrahman Bilgic and emphasized the solid foundations of the political and economic relations between Turkey and the UK.

Attendees spent the second keynote session with Neil Floyd, Deputy Consul-General and Head of UK-Trade and Investment of British Consulate General Istanbul. In his keynote, Floyd underlined the strong bilateral relationship and painted the picture of how post Brexit UK-EU and UK-Turkey economic and trade relations might look like.

Rounding out the Forum’s key note speeches was the Deputy Minister of Economy of Turkey Fatih Metin, who made an open call for investors to come and invest in Turkey and benefit from the numerous and unique opportunities Turkey has to offer. Metin concluded; “We will be stronger together. I hope, our bilateral efforts will develop our countries’ economic and trade relations further and carry them to the targeted levels we plan for in no time.”

The second part of the Forum was organized around four consecutive panel discussions titled “Post-Brexit UK-Turkey Economic Relations”, “Defence & Aerospace”, “Food & Agriculture” and “The Technology Agenda”, discussing current and possible developments in the related industries and how these developments would translate into Turkey-UK business opportunities.

Create Account

We use a range of cookies to give you the best possible browsing experience. By continuing to use this website, you agree to our use of cookies. You can view our cookie policy and edit your settings here